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Sunday, December 18, 2011

A Letter To Nathan Christopher Charles "Dayspring Askani'son" Summers. The Man Known As Cable

To Cable,

When your story began in the Spring of 1990, I had no idea how much your death would effect me 21 years later.

I've been a fan of the X-Men as long as I've been a fan of comic books. And I've been a fan of comic books for, literally, as long as I've been able to read. What Cable represents to me is everything terrible about having to be a member of the X-Men. Your birth was wrought with tragedy, as was your entire life. But everything you did from beginning to end was with purpose. To save your people from the future you were born to. To save others from the pain you suffered yourself.

Now, I know this is all a comic book and that everything that went onto paper was from the mind of a writer. But the idea that Cable represented is eternal; the eternal warrior brought forward to guard his people from a destiny he barely understood but would mean that he would have to make the ultimate sacrifice against.

Maybe your introduction came at a time for me that I was barely able to understand; I was a prepubescent boy that spent his "free time" (as I would have been soooo busy from school) between comic books, video games and action figures. And what made sense to me was that you were going to do everything within your means to accomplish your mission whether it meant using a big fucking gun to open a door, spitting a piece of steel shot through some douche bags forehead or running through the time stream to protect your adopted child from people that would have her dead for being gifted.

You've loved, lost and sacrificed. Fought, grown and effected your entire world and I have bared witness to it all. I've read and own nearly all of your appearances in the Marvel Universe and at this point, I do believe that the man known as Cable is my favorite X-Men and I've not realized it until now.

Thank you, Nathan Summers.

The X-Men books have never been about the action sequences that unfold panel to panel, but the character interactions of the the X-Family. And though different writers have tried to leave there mark on each character, each character that has become part of the X-Men Universe is an archetype unto them self and seems to shine through any fluff added on top.

I am an X-Men, like my father before me, so shall be those that follow in my footsteps.